Related: A long time ago, in a multi-player game far, far away, I was reading applications from prospective members of what you could think of as a role-playing group, detailing their characters' backgrounds. Every last one of them was an orphan. Every bloody one. I asked a friend "how come we don't get apps from people whose happy parents saved up to send them to the big city to join our (highly respected) career path?" But they didn't. It became the subpath joke that we must be running an orphanage.

Worldwalker: That kinda goes along with the "beam me up, scotty" joke about sci-fi too. Or that all the greatest military leaders in history never married, or were only married briefly, and their wives died, leaving them to live a life of solitude as a military commander.

I'd like to read some of these thrillers. Coming from reading nothing but Romances I'm ready for a change. There are plenty of fun loving sexually alive individuals in Romance, emphasis on the sexually alive, maybe not so much fun loving though.

I think it's because you don't expect someone who has a life to become involved in events that are likely to occur in thrillers. I mean if a cop is obsessed with catching a particular bad guy for example chances are his personal relationships (and maybe his work as well) will suffer for it. Similar things apply to the others as well. For whatever reason personal lives suffer due to their activities.

I think it's because you don't expect someone who has a life to become involved in events that are likely to occur in thrillers. I mean if a cop is obsessed with catching a particular bad guy for example chances are his personal relationships (and maybe his work as well) will suffer for it. Similar things apply to the others as well. For whatever reason personal lives suffer due to their activities.

Worldwalker: That kinda goes along with the "beam me up, scotty" joke about sci-fi too. Or that all the greatest military leaders in history never married, or were only married briefly, and their wives died, leaving them to live a life of solitude as a military commander.

Except for Honor Harrington who came from a loving and doting family, married happily, and geve birth to children she adored -- all while saving the universe from destruction.

There should be scope for "real characters" in thrillers who are believable and human caught up in dramatic series of events. 99% of thrillers, especially crime thrillers are so far off any connection with reality as to make them hard to read. Surely a middle ground can be found that makes for a good story without stretching credibility too far

Ya know, I may not be a thriller writer, but I could very easily write a thriller if I wanted to that didn't have some messed up individual as the centerpiece. Heck, I could have it star a stay at home mother with super powers and still make it better than most traditional thrillers. lol.

Why not try it and see then Steven? If you succeed great, and if you find it more difficult than you expect then you will have expanded yourself as a writer. So either way you would stand to gain from the experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Ya know, I may not be a thriller writer, but I could very easily write a thriller if I wanted to that didn't have some messed up individual as the centerpiece. Heck, I could have it star a stay at home mother with super powers and still make it better than most traditional thrillers. lol.